HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – Though the Western Conference appeared to be wide open and stacked with nine strong teams, the two that are meeting in the conference finals are the two top seeds and the team that have represented the conference in last two Finals.

The San Antonio Spurs were the league’s best team this season and have home-court advantage. But they’ve lost 10 of their last 12 meetings with the Oklahoma City Thunder, going back to the 2012 conference finals, when OKC rebounded from an 0-2 deficit to win four straight.

It’s the Thunder’s length and athleticism that gives the Spurs fits. But OKC is down one long, athletic starter with Serge Ibaka out with a calf injury.

Here are some statistical nuggets regarding the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the West, as well as the four games they played against each other.

Only one of the conference finalists that doesn’t rank in the top three in postseason 3-point percentage. San Antonio, Miami and Indiana rank first, second and third respectively. The Thunder rank 13th at 33.2 percent.

Let the game start then we’ll see what OKC do without Ibaka. He is their interior defense. He is the third leading scorer for OKC and their best rebounder. Now we can penetrate eaiser. No one really to alter the shot. We win in 5 or 6.

okc will be totally ok w/o Serge Ibaka!In case you haven’t noticed K.D. turns up the heat when missing one of his starting teammates. Furthermore Kendrick Perkins got Tim Duncans # in the paint &Nick Collison/Steven Adams/P.J.III will easily make up for ibaka’s defensive absense. Also don’t forget about Parker nursing bad hamstring. If anybody could make that hamstring worse w/o even tryin it’s Russell Westbrook and the thunder’s high tempo offense! i Say we send these fossils fishing in 6 .

I think people are underestimating just how good OKC is, and how much they have the Spurs number. The Spurs had their chance last season and they blew it. This one goes to OKC versus Pacers, and KD gets his first title to match his first MVP.

Anybody still talkin about the call in l.a. don’t know anything about basketball! If it was actually called correctly in the first damn place it would have been a foul and STILL our ball with two shots at that since we were in the bonus at the time! None of our coaches or guys offered a mention on that because unlike Doc Rivers we are not crybabies!

I don’t care about the regular season results because teams don’t usually give it 100% during that time. Most especially the Spurs who are known for their minutes conservation system. Perfect example: The Nets swept the Heat in the reg season but look what happened? I’d rather look at the Spurs – Okc playoffs history. It’s true that OKC beat the Spurs 4 – 2 in 2012. But remember that the games were VERY CLOSE and the Thunders had James Harden. This time there will be no Harden and no Ibaka too. Further, the Spurs have upgraded by virtue of adding Marco Belinelli plus the much improved play of Kawhi Leonard and Patty Mills. Factoring all that, I see the Spurs dominating this series. Spurs in 5.

All those numbers mean dada. Spurs in 5. No Ibaka, No interior D, No one to stop Manu, Leonard, Parker from penetrating. No offense from Perkins or Sef. Unless the OKC bench makes an appearance consistently I don’t see OKC going any further

The injury not only affected the thunders but also the heat… if he was not injured, they have the edge against the Spurs… I think OKC is the one team that can deal with the Spurs effectively… I’m a heat fan so I’d rather that the champs go against okc rather than the spurs cause it is an easier matchup for them due to their style… but now with the current injury, the spurs has the edge in the series and we are most likely to see a rematch of last year’s finals… the spurs are a tough matchup for the heat and is the only team that can beat the champs 4x in 7 games… hope the HEAT get the 3peat though… I know they will. (wazzup with the injury sergE? man! KDs dream will have to wait next season…)